Writing

Last week was Fall break for many American schools. For me, that meant a few days off tackling to-do lists and knocking out the things that don’t get prioritized during a normal work week. One item on my Wunderlist To-Do list was “Install master bath towel hooks.” It sounded simple enough, so simple in fact, that I opted to add tackling the guest bathroom and installing hand towel holders to the list as well. No problem!

A collision of things has happened to me these past weeks that makes me want to share a few thoughts on mentors, honor, credit and more. At the Life.Church Family Reunion event it was so great to see Pastor Craig interview and talk with “his pastor” Nick Harris. I have heard about Pastor Nick over my twelve years on staff, but I have never met Nick. To watch Craig honor Nick, and see how much Craig has learned from Nick was so inspiring. I knew Nick was an influence and mentor to Craig, but seeing the one on one interview it gave me a new insight on the relationship.

An interesting word and often a difficult action to take, at least for me. This week I fumbled in the area of trusting God, and I think it’s important to share this learning...because I need to remember it! So here is the background that leads to the fumble.

Excuse my language, but Satan is a bastard. I hate seeing his work and impact on humanity. As I shared last week, I had an awesome opportunity to visit Google headquarters and join a panel discussing Christianity in Tech in a session entitled Spiritual Intelligence. A cool title, one that I have lots of thoughts on, but today I am going to highlight what became crystal clear to me with the Q&A time...

Robin and I will celebrate 20 years of marriage this year, and those of you who know us well understand what I mean when I say I married way over my head. As I was processing many different discussions this past week, I was reminded that a marriage is very similar to long-term investing. What better stock to look at than Amazon when it comes to the long game. As I think about our marriage...

“Excellence is a journey, not a destination.” I believe it’s essential for us all to remember and know we do not arrive at excellence, nor do we ever show up at a single event that determines excellence. Excellence is, and requires, continual determination and grit because it is a process.

What is it? The world will tell you that money, power and greed will bring it to you. That the harder you work, the closer you get to the top of the ladder, and the more hours you spend away from home will also help you achieve it. It also tells you to devour anything or anyone that could get in your way. It says don’t worry about lying, cheating or stealing, these will actually bring you closer to it. It deceives you by telling you your marriage is not as important as it is, that if you have me you don’t need anything else. It manipulates you into putting it first above everything else.

Three days until Christmas, and ten days until 2018. Time keeps on ticking...and on that topic, this last Saturday highlights that best for me. My oldest daughter Reia was born on Christmas Eve in 2001, which completely feels like yesterday. The excitement of our first child, not knowing if it will it be a boy or girl. Will it be Brendon Todd Storch or Reia Faith Storch? We did not know. Well, Reia it was and just last Saturday that same Reia who was born just yesterday bought her first car.

Competitive sports produces winners and losers. There is no participation medal, and no one remembers the 2nd, 3rd or 4th place. This is the zero-sum game. My win is your loss, and this mindset does not just birth out of sports - it’s much deeper than that. As Wikipedia explains, it is also embedded in our mathematical understanding, so it impacts our financial understanding and can drive the way we think about money and stewardship. If you stop and think about this concept, the zero-sum mentality just might drive many areas of your world.

Have you ever been in a car when the engine overheated? The smell is horrible, and the only safe option is to pull over and stop the car. Total shutdown. There are many reasons a motor will overheat - but I am not going to dig into proper maintenance of a motor...I am going to shift into the more uncomfortable topic; are YOU running too hot, or running your team or organization too hot; nearing overheating and total shutdown?